Playing With Fuel

[John]

(A First Draft)

The public school was beating it out of me
So I shut it down
I could/would not let them destroy it
So I put it away.
I burried it.

I had been enjoying leaning toward independent art
Throughout my youthfull years
But I had to shut it down.
It was anger that made me put the fire out.
And I hid the fuel.

If I could not have the dignity
Of what was of my making
I was not about to hand it over
To the demands of my teachers.
I hid the fuel.

My teachers liked some of what I was doing
But it did not quite fit what they had in mind . . .
I learned to bury it.
The fire went out.
I put it out.

I still know where the fuel is.
Now we - no - I will see if the fuel will still burn
After all this time
The spark of Liberty is all I need
The artistic fuel is here
In New Hampshire

[Tom Sawyer]

 
Let it out John.

[Russell Kanning]

Interesting

[John]

Let it out John.

I know where the fuel is
But I've been too careful.
I dig only as Liberty permits.

For now, after all this time, the last burried burns first
But the spark of Liberty burns only in my heart
I create my own Liberty

I have the fuel
My artistic fuel is here - In New Hampshire
Yet the spark, is only within.